"Ah Xing, hold on a second."
Late at night, after training ended, the group didn't really make much progress, since it was only the first day.
When it was time to rest, Sengoku called out to Ah Xing again.
Ah Xing walked over and entered Sengoku's room. Garp was inside too.
Garp sat on a chair by a huge round table, with a scroll spread out in front of him.
"?! "
After walking over, Ah Xing's pupils shrank. He glanced at Sengoku, then looked at Garp in shock and said, "Isn't this... Pig Cage Village?"
"That's right. This is what Garp found there before." Sengoku closed the door and walked over.
"Pig Cage Village is just the content inside this scroll. The people in it might not even be real." Garp said in a low voice.
"But I dealt with them for a while. They felt very real, not fake at all. They even had their own pasts, and in that country, you could look up their histories."
"..." Ah Xing fell silent.
"Look at this line of text here." Sengoku pointed at the scroll with his finger. Ah Xing looked over and read the line out loud.
"One step, one sin transformed; one step, one lotus bloom?"
"That's it. It's clearly Buddhist language, so I think it might have some connection to Indra." Sengoku said. "Do you have any ideas about it?"
"...No." Ah Xing shook his head right away. "I don't know what it means."
"You and Sengoku both have some ties to Buddhism. Maybe one day you'll suddenly understand it." Garp said. "Just like when you learned the Buddha's Palm technique. Didn't you say it takes steady practice?"
"If you have time, come take a look." Sengoku added. "This might relate to another demon lord, though... right now, the most important thing is still Zero's matter."
"Yeah, I'll keep an eye on it."
Ah Xing nodded. With nothing else to discuss, he said goodbye to Garp and Sengoku and went back to his room to get some sleep.
"What do you think of Ah Xing?" Once Ah Xing left, Sengoku leaned against the wall and asked Garp.
Garp pulled out his donuts and tossed one into his mouth. He mumbled a bit unclearly, "I think highly of him. You've given him such an important job and position, so you should know him better than I do."
"That's true..." Sengoku said softly. "From the moment he said 'If good and evil go unrewarded, heaven and earth must be unfair,' I knew he was someone with potential. He has his own sense of justice and sticks to it. But that's exactly what worries me."
"You mean..." Garp chuckled and said quietly, "The Celestial Dragons, right?"
If good and evil go unrewarded, heaven and earth must be unfair. This saying is easy to get. Ah Xing's justice is all about retribution for good and evil, but...
In the Marines, retribution for good and evil comes with a condition: 'Nothing the Celestial Dragons do is evil!'
Ah Xing's justice wouldn't allow that. Could he really make a place for himself in the Marines like this?
"Ah Xing's personality might get him into a lot of trouble." Sengoku sighed, agreeing with Garp.
"It's not great to say this, but most of what the Celestial Dragons do is evil by normal standards. Ah Xing has been in the Jaltzburg Kingdom all this time, so he might not know much about it. But once he returns to Marine Headquarters, he'll have to deal with the Celestial Dragons."
A Marine Admiral and a legendary Marine Vice Admiral talking about the Celestial Dragons like this—if the World Government found out, they'd be furious. But Sengoku only said things like this when it was just the two of them.
"Just send him straight to the New World." Garp said. "Let him train in a New World branch for two years. If he can still hold to his justice like he does now..."
He glanced at Sengoku, then said slowly,
"Then... that would be great."
They'd seen plenty of young, hot-blooded people fresh out of training who wanted to change the world. In the end, though, the unchangeable iron facts of the world broke their spirit, and they became smooth and cautious.
Hadn't they changed themselves too?
No one in this world can stick to their beliefs forever...
To be honest, they hoped Ah Xing would be the kind of person who could change, because only then could he become a Marine Admiral. But they also really didn't want him to turn out that way.
This seemed like a contradiction, but it made sense...
The room grew quiet. Garp slowly stood up and went back to his own room, preparing for tomorrow, the day after, and even further ahead.
And so, time passed bit by bit.
During this time, Ah Xing got along well with everyone. He practiced the Buddha's Palm with the sword members every night, and during the day, he investigated demon traces in the Jaltzburg Kingdom with the Marines.
Thirty thousand Marines worked with some soldiers and guards from the kingdom. They started from the borders and pushed inward, checking every corner. It would take a lot of time, but it was the only way.
Working with Sakaki and the others was a last resort. If they could handle Tunfo on their own, why ask for help?
In the blink of an eye, two months passed. Things stayed calm during those two months, and this year would end today too.
That's right. After today, it would be the year 1486 in the Sea Calendar...
The Marines' big operation had been going on for over three months now. Such a long action made the world curious. They didn't know what so many Marines were doing in a small country. Some people came to check, but the troops outside drove them away.
And because they moved so many troops, plus an Admiral and a Vice Admiral like Garp, to the Jaltzburg Kingdom, disasters broke out all over the Grand Line. With only Zephyr as an Admiral, they clearly couldn't handle all the pirates.
Gradually, Sengoku and the others felt the pressure. More and more pirates were coming from outside to cause trouble. If any slipped in, the situation in the country would get even messier. That would be real trouble.
But the one who caused all this chaos didn't care about their feelings.
Because now, he was finally going to draw a card!
After all this time, it had been two years since he came to this world. His first ten-million-level character card was about to appear.
Yes!
His negative emotion value had now reached ten million!
What would the first ten-million-level character card be?
Right now, his heart was full of anticipation...
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